Rubio’s snub of South Africa, which this year is chairing the G20 forum of large economies, the EU and African Union, comes after Trump said on Sunday without evidence that South Africa was “confiscating land” and that he was stopping US funding pending an investigation.
The US relationship with South Africa deteriorated under the previous US president, Joe Biden, when South Africa refused to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine war but continued to play an active part in the Brics bloc, originally made up of Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Musk, who like other former PayPal executives and wealthy Trump allies Peter Thiel and David Sacks spent at least part of their childhood in apartheid-ruled South Africa, has accused South Africa of having “openly racist laws”.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has accused South Africa of “anti-Americanism” and refused to attend a G20 meeting in Johannesburg later this month, as diplomatic ties sour between the two countries under Donald Trump’s administration.
Rubio accuses South Africa of ‘anti-Americanism’ and snubs G20 meeting US secretary of state repeats remarks by Donald Trump about ‘expropriation of private property’ in African nation.
